Show notes
In this episode, we will discuss how to expand your Amazon brand with translations using AI & the human touch, cultural insights, global marketplaces, and strategies for crafting high-converting listings. ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Join us for an engaging discussion as we sit down with Jana Krekic of YLT Translations, an expert in translations and e-commerce strategies, to explore the transformative role of AI in the world of translation and localization. Recorded live from Milan, Italy, Jana shares her expertise in optimizing Amazon listings, shedding light on the limitations of AI in delivering high-quality, culturally nuanced translations. Through vivid examples, she illustrates the crucial role of human touch in understanding cultural contexts, such as the importance of local references like "nonna" in Italian culture. Discover why relying solely on AI could mean missing out on potential sales and how balancing technology with human expertise is key to successful e-commerce strategies. Explore the nuances of expanding into new markets with insights into evaluating marketplaces for product expansion. The conversation emphasizes not only the importance of assessing sales but also the significance of comparing profits across regions. Uncover strategies for beating competitors through superior content and keyword optimization, especially in areas where local language content is often neglected. Learn about typical expansion routes for US and European brands, and gain insights into emerging markets like Japan and the UAE. We also touch on the growing curiosity among US businesses about platforms like Walmart and TikTok Shop, despite uncertainties in their operational dynamics. Finally, we emphasize the importance of optimizing Amazon listings by focusing on context and customer interaction. Hear about the ever-evolving nature of Amazon's rules and algorithms and the necessity of adhering to local regulations in international marketplaces. With AI playing a significant role in product visibility, an effective keyword strategy is crucial for reaching the right audience. Listen as we highlight successful global brand localization strategies and share tips for enhancing engagement and profits by tailoring content to resonate with local audiences. Plus, don't miss a valuable travel tip on saving money through tax-free shopping while abroad, making this episode a must-listen for anyone involved in the e-commerce world. In episode 620 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Jana discuss: 00:00 - AI Translation and Listing Localization Strategies 01:22 - AI Advancement and the Translation Industry 05:59 - Localization of Images for Amazon Listings 10:33 - New Emerging E-commerce Marketplaces 12:37 - Product Market Research in Germany 17:09 - Optimizing Amazon Listings with AI 20:14 - Understanding International Food Standards 25:42 - Challenges of Brand Localization 26:38 - Global Brand Localization Success Strategies 31:22 - Airport Tax Refund Travel Tips Transcript:Bradley Sutton: Today we've got Yana back on the show we're recording live from Milan, Italy, and she's going to talk about a wide variety of subjects, such as preparing your listing for Amazon AI translating your listing, other marketplaces and much more. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Sellers have lost thousands of dollars by not knowing that they were hijacked, perhaps on their Amazon listing, or maybe somebody changed their main image or Amazon changed their shipping dimension so they had to pay extra money every order. Helium 10 can actually send you a text message or email if any of these things or other critical events happen to your Amazon account. For more information, go to h10.me forward slash alerts. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And speaking of the e-commerce world, I am on the other side of the world right now. I'm in Milan, Italy. and we are at the Helium 10 Elite and Avask Workshop, and one of the speakers for today is somebody who is no stranger to the show, Jana. Jana, welcome back. Jana Krekic: Thank you so much. Bradley Sutton: Now, this is the first time we've seen Yana, because she's been uh, creating life, you know, uh out there, uh, how's that for you? How's that going for you? Jana Krekic: um, it's a struggle, but it's something that I'm really grateful for, honestly. Bradley Sutton: I got an early start. You know she were just talking about how my kids are in their 20’s already. But then again, you know there's advantages of waiting. You know like you got to, you know you and Lazar got to have a. You know just pretty much, go wherever you whenever you want. You see now that it's a little bit different. You can't just go up and like, hey, let's go to Ibiza today. Jana Krekic: huh yeah, well, I mean, I could go to Ibiza, but I have to be uh home by 9 pm, so that's the small difference. Bradley Sutton: So we’re not here to talk about parenting. Where’re here to talk about what Yana is an expert at, and that's mainly translations and things. And I think one thing that's been on the mind of many people is wait a minute, with AI do I even need professional translators anymore? I could just go ahead and click a button and now I can have a perfectly optimized listing, thanks to ChatGPT or thanks to AI. Now can you tell us? Is that a true statement? Jana Krekic: Well, honestly, Bradley, I use AI on daily basis and I think it has changed our lives and made our lives simpler in some ways. But I would disagree with the part where you said to get your listings optimized. I would say it's great to do a summary of your reviews and maybe to help you understand how a product works, maybe to describe what you see on the picture if the image is blurry and you can't tell. But I would stay away from AI when it comes to optimization, keywords and, most importantly, localization, because AI is still it's getting better, definitely, but I still we are years away from this being a fantastic tool that will replace human brain and human touch and human understanding of context. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, so you actually had some examples of what the drawbacks are. Because, yeah, you know, maybe if, if you have zero budget and you want to have something better than just the Amazon auto translates, sure, maybe you know ai is not is going to put you on the right track, but what's an example of kind of like money you're leaving on the table if you just 100 rely on AI for translation? Jana Krekic: yeah, I would, I would agree. I would say that you can get it translated. It will be probably mediocre at best. A lot of things will be maybe translated very confusingly, will be poorly translated, but you know, if you're on tight budget, yeah, sure, go ahead and you know, see how that works, because probably it will not be as efficient as something else. But since we're here in Italy, I have a really good example, and this is a pasta machine, whatever clients were selling. So she was selling this in the States and then she was branding is as pasta machine, like in Bella Italia. Now, like for an American like you would probably think that, wow, this is something very authentic, something that will make me help make great posts at home. But what if you want to sell this product in Italy? So what if you tell Italian hey, buy this product because it's in Bella Italia? And you, being an Italian, would be like, what do you mean Bella Italia? I don't understand. We're already in Italia and it is Bella, but I mean I don't get it. So, -like using AI, I tried to play around a little bit with this example and so the first thing I wrote out really nice prompt and I said can you make it sound more localized so that Italians want to buy this machine because it's really top quality and will make amazing pasta. So the AI came up with make pasta in a traditional way, which is better. It's not a literal translation, but it's still so far away from like. What is like when you say Bella Italia in English and to an American. It doesn't send the same message and it doesn't have the same warmth as like. What you would get is, for instance, if you said make pasta like your Nonna or like your grandma used to make. So when you say Nonna to an Italian, it automatically triggers that childhood memories great pasta, warmth. It sells emotions and this is what will sell us your product and it will make it closer to your local audience and Italians will be like well, let me try this because I really want to make you know like pasta like my grandma used to make, because this is probably one of the best memories I've had of my grandma and then they will buy this product. But then AI will not come up with this because AI is not uh, doesn't have. This lacks human touch, literally like. That translation is okay, it's decent, but it lacks that something that will connect you with the target audience and sell your product and convey the same message you'll have back in your home marketplace yeah, so that's. Bradley Sutton: That's a one good example, and almost in any language there's going to be, you know, similar one thing like that, even in English. So maybe somebody who is an Italian person trying to make an American listing, you know might try to translate an American listing. You know might try to translate some words that just you know, like American or English or American slang that you just can't always just translate from an AI. I mean, definitely, I think AI is better than Google translate. You know that's one of the worst things that you could do for your listing, but it still has a little way to go. Now, um, something interesting we've been seeing lately from Amazon, something that Amazon sellers have been asking for a while is the ability to localize your images easier. You know, in the past sometimes, hey, you have your US ASIN and then you're using the same ASIN in Italy or Spain or wherever, and it would pull in those images and then you try and rewrite the image and then now all of a sudden, your Spanish infographic is showing in US. But now they have this kind of like cool image manager where you can make the images for each marketplace. What are some best practices for how you can quote unquote localize the images. It's not just about the words. Obviously that's a no brainer, you know, don't have Japanese writing in your Amazon USA listing but like even some lifestyle images like would you suggest changing like base to make it more look like you know you don't want, you know, like maybe to have Jap Asian looking models for Japan market or things like that, or what can you talk about? Localization of images? Jana Krekic: So this is a really good question, but unfortunately, maybe 1% of the brands would actually do that. 90% of the brands would just change the text on images. The images will stay the same, but they will just translate it into different languages, which is fine. It is also one step forward compared to how it used to be. But what is really important depends on the category that you're selling. For instance, if you're selling doorknobs or if you're selling anything that has to do with anything you can find in your bathroom, maybe like a shower organizer or a shower curtain or anything like it. You have to keep in mind that bathrooms in Europe are quite different than bathrooms in the States, and all the brands selling anything like that like from the States to Europe they leave the American doorknobs, they leave the American shower heads, which is fixed to the ceiling. In Europe we have, like this completely different thing, and also this is something that really catches like my attention every single time, because like then these customers will say, well, well, maybe this works like in the states, but like it doesn't fit really well into my shower cabin. I don't have it. I also have a really big bath which you don't get like in the States and like there are like a lot of things that are very, very different also. For instance, like in in Europe, like I want to have a bidet in my bathroom, which is quite usual to have in your home. Uh was in the States, like I have never seen a bidet except the international chain of hotels Bradley Sutton: My house has one from living in Japan. I was like I need a bidet in my, so I custom uh, imported one and I'm using one in my house well. Jana Krekic: You're one of the 1000 people I probably have like that smart uh toilet as well, which is my favorite. Um, yeah, so this is like something that brands don't really pay attention to. So, for all the other things, I think you can get away with. For instance, if you're selling something like a I don't like a office supplements, sports, outdoors, all of that, maybe yes, maybe switched with like different models, but I would say that for most of the cases, you can keep the same models. But when you're selling a home appliance or anything that has to do with something which is in your home, keep in mind that homes are very different and people would not be able to relate with this product, understand where to put it, how it works, because they'll have different things in their home. And then, in these cases, I would recommend changing the images, because I think that this would bring you so much more and this might be a deal breaker for your product. Bradley Sutton: Good point, good point. Now, going back to your topic of listings and things like that. Now I'm going to miss. I'm not going to be able to see your presentation this afternoon because I'm going to record another podcast and we're not going to go over your whole thing here. But can you give some of the main points of what you're going to talk about this afternoon? Jana Krekic: Right. So I'm going to try to answer the question like where to sell your product next. So a lot of people ask me this, so I decided to dig a little bit deeper into this topic and try to, um, just do like a short summary of like what you should pay attention to. For instance, like you should check, like, what, how much money is this product making on your marketplace? Then I would compare the profit that, for instance, my competitor is making my home market versus what is making. What are they making on the new marketplace? So this is really important. So not only the sales matter, but also profit. If they're making less profit, then they're making their in your home marketplace and selling more than maybe you should. You know, think again of like if you want to do or not. And then, of course, you want to know if you can beat them on the content level, using keywords, using optimization, using a bunch of different things, strategies. This is really important because, like, if you have 10, 15 different top competitors, from my experience and from all the analysis I've done, you can land in top three, four, even in the top best-selling categories on the content level. So that for me alone is worth going there because you can organically be indexed very easily, because a lot of brands that come from the States that se…
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